USI Blog

16 May, 2018

Pound plunges back towards its lowest point of the year

The Pound declined rather quickly today, heading back to its lowest point of this year, down 0.25% at $1.3474 and tumbled against the Euro to 87.735 pence.

On Tuesday, the British government stated that, next month, they would announce detailed plans for their future connections with the European Union, in order to resolve the outstanding issues with the EU.

The British government are divided in their views about the future relationship with the EU and the EU officials have made continual complaints about Britain not clearly stating what they want. This in turn, has led to talks of Brexit being a risk for the Pound.

Furthermore, a decline in the EU workers over the next 12 months could impact Britain’s social services, including hospitals. Much depends on what both sides bring to the Brexit negotiation table in regard to the free movement of workers.

Across the pond, US retail sales saw a rise indicating a likely growth in wages. This has led to a boom in the U.S. consumer spending after a span of sluggish sales.

In other news, the upward trend on oil prices comes to a break with the Brent crude currently down 0.4% at $78.10 a barrel. However, analysts expect the oil prices to continue increasing.

Earlier, US Bank Morgan Stanley, increased its Brent crude forecast and is now anticipating Brent prices to reach $85 per barrel by the end of 2019 and to increase to $90 per barrel by 2020.